Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1887-03-31
OBJECTIVE LOGIC


The San Francisco Chronicle begs for
mercy, protesting that it did not mean
that any class of freight by '1egap right
belongs to any given avenues of transport
alton. What it meant, it declares, was
the right that flows from the ordinary
course of business. 1t should not insult
intelligence by assuming that it was ever
claimed that it meant "legaP right. We
at least understood it perfectly, and we re-
iterate that in the modern methods and
progress Of transportation there is not
even the right which grows with ordinary
business courses, that gives any particular
class of freight to any particular method
of carriage. The possibilities of modern
transportation agencies have done away
with former conditions, and made that
avenue of transportation best which offers
the speediest transit, lowest rates and
least risk While it is true that goods not
dependent upon quick market, or subject
to deterioration by reason of time, often
take the slowest route because of exceed
ingly low rates, the same classes Of goods
also move by the rapid lines OF transit,
for the same reason, and so divided is the
freight traffic that all lines carrying be-
tween common points are in all respects
competitors.
The Chronicle insists that low water
freights are never due to railway COMPETE
ton, because, as 1t puts it, "there is no
common ground upon which comparison
can be instituted" Yet it remains that
such rivalry in transportation, however
dissimilarly measured, does exist, and the
recent notice of advance in steamer rates,
following close upon the heels of the in
terstate commerce bill, is sufficient to ex-
pose the fallacy of the Chronicles position.
That rail competition is the sole influence
producing low water freight rates has
not been contended, but that be-
tween common points it is a potent
factor will be denied only by the dogma
fist. Competing water-carriers operate
competing carriers by rail and carriers by
rail between the same points, touched by
rail and ship, compete with the latter, and
the rates of each are affected by the COM
mon laws of competition that apply to
competing carriers by Sater alone, or by
rail alone.
The Chronicle harps upon the worn old
story that shippers have been driven by
coercive measures of rail-carriers to aban-
don water routes. The statement is in
keeping with the policy of THAT mendacious
journal, for no such character attached to
the special contracts to which it refers, as
it would have people believe. The laws of
trade and commerce justify, and reason
fortifes, the carrier in offering to the ship
per lower rates for large volume of bust
ness than can be accorded for divided
traffic, and there is not business man in
the country who does not act upon pre-
cisely that principle, and properly so.
But the most astonishing proposition of
the Chronicles labored and defensive arti-
Gle of yesterday is, that elimination of
through low rates by rail would result in
diminished cost to interior people who
buy in San Francisco, because of shorter
mileage between that city and the interior
compared with the length OF haul from
the East to interior towns, and the as
sumed maintenance of low rates for water
carriage between the East and San Fran
cisco. The absurdity of this statement is
made apparent by the inquiry, why, then,
in the name Of common sense, do the in
terror consumers ship from the East by
rail or buy elsewhere than in San Fran
cisco? If water carriage never was in
competition with rail carriage; if low
water rates are not and have not been due
to competitive rail influences, why, in the
name of goodness, has the interior ever
brought goods to its door by any other than
salt sea routes? Why is it that, in all
these recent years, the interior merchant
has not purchased all his supplies in San
Francisco, if the influence of water carriage
is wholly disasoeiated from the cost of
transportation by rail? The fact is Just
this, the ctroaicie thinks it sees, in a pos
sible new order of things, greater oppor-
tunity for San Francisco to exact tribute
from the interior.